short term plans

it occurred to me today that there's only 19 days left until the surgery. while simply the thought of having surgery at all is freaking me out enough, the other thought is that of losing all of this recently gained fitness. it'll surely be a month or so until i can resume running, and by that time i could be back at square one. well, realistically i was at square zero, so i guess even square one is an improvement. but seriously, it has been bothering me that all this working out might be for nothing. but then again, i am enjoying it. i've found that passion for running and a healthy lifestyle again. i just need to make sure i keep it up through my layoff and not gain any weight back. anyway, those thougts have been festering inside my mind for a while, so i thought i'd let them out.

i've come up with some short term plans leading up to my month long sentence of inactivity. first of all, let me show you this cool little route tracker i've been using, courtesy of the USATF website. it's pretty cool, and the distances seem to be very accurate. anyway, darrin and i are going to do a 10-miler on saturday. i'm really looking forward to it. this will be the farthest i've run since IMFL in 2003. next week, i'm thinking of cutting back a little, then on the 28th, which will be my last run before d-day, i'm going to do a half marathon. well it's not actually a race, but i'm going to do a 13.1 mile route. just to prove to myself that i can. darrin hasn't actually committed to doing it with me yet, but he will. or i'll have to kill him. or at least call him a big pussy. either one. anyway, i thought this would be a neat way to end the first phase of my getting back into fitness and racing.

last nite, darrin and i did 5.4 miles in bright moonlight. it was crystal clear out, and it must have been a full moon. we did a 3.3 mile loop, then ran 6 laps in the 'hood to finish the distance in 49:18, or 9:08/mile. while i did feel like i was working the whole way, my breathing was never labored. i still felt like i had a good reserve if it was needed. tonite we'll do 3 or 4, then take friday off in preparation for a big day on saturday. happy running!